COLUMBUS — Seven area high school wrestlers entered the Jerome Schottenstein Center March 7-9 for the 2019 Individual State Wrestling Tournament. When they came home, Legacy Christian Academy’s Gavin Brown became a state champion and five others had placed in the top-8 of their respective weight classes.
Brown (38-5) had to defeat 2018 113-pound champion Ethan Turner of Troy Christian — the same wrestler Brown had to defeat in the district title match just the week before — in the Division III 126-pound final. Brown won the match, 2-1 to become Greene County’s lone state champion of the season.
Fellow Legacy Christian freshmen Camron Lacure (120 pounds) and Matt Ellis (106) also placed in their respective D-III tournament brackets. Lacure (35-6) pinned his Pemberville Eastwood opponent to claim third place; Ellis (28-11) claimed a 4-1 decision over a Gates Mills Hawken opponent to earn seventh place.
Greeneview’s Devan Hendricks (47-9) was also in the D-III tournament, and the Rams senior placed eighth at 145 pounds.
There were no area state qualifiers in the Division II tourney, but Beavercreek had three wrestlers in the Division I tournament.
Two of the three Beavercreek wrestlers also ended their weekends on the awards podium, with the third wrestler — ‘Creek senior 182-pounder John Hammond (38-16) — losing to a district champ and runner-up in back-to-back matches.
The Beavers’ junior Gavin Bell (20-4) claimed a major decision win in the third-place match at 152 pounds, and senior 220-pounder Bradley Smith (29-5) also claimed a decision to win his D-I seventh-place match.